Measuring healthy engagement

Traditional metrics like daily active users and session duration measure quantity without quality. Healthy engagement metrics assess whether users accomplish goals, feel satisfied, and maintain balanced usage patterns. This requires looking beyond time spent to understand user outcomes and wellbeing indicators.

Healthy engagement shows distinct patterns. For example:

• Users complete specific tasks efficiently rather than browsing aimlessly
• Return rates stay consistent without compulsive checking behavior
• Session lengths match task complexity, shorter for simple needs and longer for complex work
• Voluntary returns outnumber notification-driven opens, indicating genuine value rather than manufactured urgency

Product teams can implement healthy engagement tracking through post-session surveys, goal completion rates, and voluntary return ratios. Compare users who disable notifications against those who keep them enabled.